I saw an ad in the papers a few days ago that said 90% of diabetic Kuwaiti kids are living without insulin pumps, which means that every kid takes an average of 1,500 insulin injections per year. That’s almost 5 needle injection PER DAY.

I couldn’t believe the percentage of kids who still rely on painful multi-day injections. It’s very sad. Diabetes is a very tough and life-long chronic disease, without a cure so far. All that we can do is for our kids is provide them with an easier life, and a way to better manage their sickness.

Taking insulin injections is a very painful and tiring way to live by. An insulin pump takes care of both the dosage and pain. It mimics the body’s natural way of providing insulin, so kids can live and eat as close to normal as possible.

I can’t imagine how a kuwaiti kid can live without one. We’re one of the richest countries in the world, giving out billions of dinars in charities all over the globe, every year, and yet we let our kids to live with such suffering and pain!

They’re collecting the donations through theKuwaiti Red Crescent Society and through Zain.

Donations will be given to Dasman Diabetes Institute, which will buy the pumps and train the kids on how to use them.

We have 3,500 diabetic kids in Kuwait, of which only 700 (and that’s including adults too) have insulin pumps.

This is a legitimate charity campaign, spearheaded by the KRCS and Dasman Institute. You can be 100% assured that your funds will be collected and used for the purpose you donated them for. You can donate through the following:

I too was surprised at how many diabetics in Kuwait do not have insulin pumps, and a quick google search told me why. Most people don’t have pumps because they are really expensive (both cost of the pump and the accessories). Actually, only 1 out of 1000 people in Britian have a pump, so we are actually in a better shape. (See this site for more info http://www.diabetes.co.uk/insulin/Getting-an-insulin-pump.html )

I would support this campaign if they were more transparent, and announced how much money they are trying to raise, and what is the criteria for selecting who gets a pump (I doubt they’ll raise millions for 3500 pumps). In the meantime, I’ll be supporting other causes – like kids who can’t food to eat, not kids who have everything but don’t want an injection.

Like I said in my post, this is a very legitimate campaign. The KRCS and Dasman Institute are among the most respected in Kuwait. There are two small pictures at the end of the post, with a lot more details about the disease and the campaign, click them for more info.

A single pump costs KD 2,500, with another KD 2,500 per year for the meds and maintenance. I don’t know if they can raise millions, but even if they just raise one million, that’ll be enough for 400 pumps. That’s a very good number. After that, we can probably rely on the M.O.H. for the running costs of meds.

As for kids who don’t have anything to eat, thank god we don’t have that in Kuwait. But for them, I don’t need to remind you that we regularly donate tens of millions in charity. Frankly, I don’t see what point you were trying to make.

We waste a lot, and I mean a lot, of money donating to every poor lost soul in this world, through all kinds of charities and disaster aid. Millions of dinars is donated every year, that’s billions of dollars, on arab and international aid every single year.

Would it be too much to ask that we support out kids just this once? Just send one or two million their way, out of the tens and hundreds of millions we donate every year?

Take this for example. King Abdulla of Jordan is visiting us in Kuwait, congratulating us for Ramadan. How much do you think he’s gona be leaving with? From our zakat and charity money? Are Jordanian kids more precious than our own? Is his country’s suffering more important than our poor dear children?

All I’m talking about is donating a few dinars. And you don’t have to if you don’t want to. But please, don’t accuse our kids of “don’t want an injection”. Have a bit of compassion to what they’re going through.

Don’t get me wrong, I really do wish they raise enough money to get all 3000 pumps. I am surprised at how expensive the med costs, I knew they were expensive but didn’t know it was 2500 annually.

As much as I think this a great campaign, I really think the organizers should rally the support of MOH. More like a compromise – For each pump purchased by the charity, the ministry would be responsible for supplying the meds. Otherwise, the effort would be wasted, money raised, pumps bought, and then abandoned because the families cannot affort to keep on using it.

The reason I feel strongly about this issue is because I feel the government should be taking care of its children, not because I am against the cause. It sickens me as well to see how much our country is paying for health care overseas, when we don’t even have a proper hospital.

We can’t rely on the government to take care oft his. The budget of the M.O.H. is large enough to supply the kids with these pumps, which are not expensive at all in comparison of the other and more advanced equipment the ministry buys. But because the M.O.H. is so filled with corruption, any money directed to them is just wasted on kickbacks and profit inflation. It’s better to keep this managed by charities, lest we lose the money.

“I can’t imagine how a kuwaiti kid can live without one. We’re one of the richest countries in the world, giving out billions of dinars in charities all over the globe, every year, and yet we let our kids to live with such suffering and pain!”

By the way – I totally agree with you on this statement. These sort of things should be covered by the Ministry of Health since technially, we don’t have health insurance. It’s sad that we need a “charity” to raise funds for it.

I wasn’t aware that there was any other method for injecting insulin other than shots. My best friend in high school had diabetes, and it was always an appetizing treat watching him lift up his shirt and stick a needle into his stomach right before lunch haha